PANDORA PREMIUM COMES TO GOOGLE HOME

Pandora Premium and Google Home speakers are getting in bed together. The service is coming to all Google smart speakers with Google Assistant built-in, Pandora announced on 8/14.

The integration means listeners who pay for Pandora’s on-demand music service will be able to search and play any song, album or playlist by asking Google. That includes the thumbs-up/thumbs-down function, skipping tracks, creating new stations or repeating a song again, according to TechCrunch. The service can also be set as the default on Google Home.

While Pandora Plus and Pandora’s free service have been available on Google Home since November 2016, and has seen a 50% jump in usage on voice-activated devices in the last year, Pandora Premium is the service’s first bona fide Spotify competitor.

The hookup another on-demand streaming service into the burgeoning voice-controlled playback sector, which also includes Google Play Music and YouTube Music. Pandora claims a 50% uptick in usage on “voice-activated devices” in the last year.